Khalilullah Khalili | |
|---|---|
 Khalilollah Khalili on the cover of "Deewaan-e Khalilullah Khalili" | |
| Born | 1907 (1907) |
| Died | 1987 (aged 79–80) |
| Language | Persian |
| Nationality |  Afghanistan |
| Genre | Poetry |
| Notable works | Hero of Khorasan |
Khalilullah Khalili (1907–1987;Persian:خلیلالله خلیلی -Ḫalīlallāḥ Ḫalīlī; alternative spellings:Khalilollah,Khalil Ullah) wasAfghanistan's foremost 20th centurypoet as well as a noted historian, university professor, diplomat and royal confidant. He was the last of the great classicalPersian poets and among the first to introduce modernPersian poetry andNimai style to Afghanistan. He had also expertise inKhorasani style and was a follower ofFarrukhi Sistani. Almost alone among Afghanistan's poets, he enjoyed a following inIran where his selected poems have been published. His works have been praised by renowned Iranian literary figures and intellectuals. Many see him as the greatest contemporary poet of thePersian language in Afghanistan. He is also known for his major work"Hero of Khorasan", a controversialbiography ofHabībullāh Kalakānī,Emir of Afghanistan in 1929.
Khalili was born inKabul Province to an ethnicSafi Dardic Tribe (tribe) family.[1] His father, Mirzā Muhammad Hussein, a Safi from the village of Sayyed Khel inParwan Province, wasKing Habibullah Khan's finance minister and owned mansions inKabul andJalalabad, but was later dismissed and hanged by Habibullah Khan's son and successor,Amanullah Khan.[1][2] His mother was the daughter of Abdul Qādir Khān, a regionalSafi tribal leader. She died when Khalili was seven.
Khalili lived and attended school in Kabul until he was 11, whenShāh Habibullāh Khān, king of Afghanistan, was assassinated, purportedly at the behest of hisreformist sonAmānullāh Khān, who quickly arrested and executed Khalili's father among others associated with the previous regime. Orphaned and unwanted in Kabul, he spent the turbulent years of Amānullāh's reign in theShamālī Plain north of Kabul where he studied classical literature and other traditional writings under moonlight, it is believed he was self taught, and began writing poetry. In 1929, when Habībullāh Kalakānī – a local Tajik fromKalakan – deposed Amānullāh Khān, Khalili joined his uncle Abdul Rahim Khan Safi, the new governor ofHerat, where he remained for more than 10 years.
In the early 1940s, he followed his uncle Abdul Rahim Khan Safi, who had been appointed a deputy prime minister, to Kabul. His stay in Kabul was cut short when, in 1944,some elders of the Safi-Clan rebelled and both uncle and nephew were imprisoned.[3] After a year in prison, Khalili was released and exiled toKandahar where he flourished as a poet and writer.
In the 1950s, Khalili was allowed to return to Kabul, where he was appointed as minister of culture and information and began teaching atKabul University.[4] He became a confidant to KingZahir Shah whom he often joined on hunting expeditions.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Khalili, who was fluent inArabic, served as Afghanistan's ambassador toSaudi Arabia andIraq. He was a member of the1964 Constitutional Assembly and a representative from Jabal al-Siraj.
Following the April 1978Communist coup, Khalili sought asylum first inWest Germany and then in theUnited States where he wrote much of his most powerful poetry about the war in his native land. In the late 1980s, he moved toIslamabad,Pakistan, where he spent his final years. He was buried in Peshawar next to the tomb of thePashto poetRahman Baba.His remains were moved to Afghanistan in 2016. Burial:Kabul University mausoleum KabulKabul, Afghanistan
Khalili was a prolific writer, producing over the course of his career an eclectic repertoire ranging from poetry to fiction to history to biography. He published 35 volumes of poetry, including his celebrated works"Aškhā wa Ḫūnhā" ("Tears And Blood"), composed during the Soviet occupation, and"Ayyār-e az Ḫorāsān" ("Hero ofKhorasan"). With the exception of a selection of his quatrains[5] and the recentAn Assembly of Moths,[6] his poetry remains largely unknown toEnglish-speaking readers.
